You are here

Northeast restaurants come downtown via food trucks

Share this:

April 23, 2012 // UPDATED 3:57 pm - April 30, 2012

By: Jeremy Zoss

Jeremy Zoss

Downtown diners will soon have a chance to sample food from a pair of Northeast restaurants without crossing the river. Both The Anchor Fish & Chips and Stanley’s Barroom have new food trucks that will make the round downtown, at events and at Minneapolis’ new taprooms.

According to The Anchor co-owner Luke Kyle, one of his partners originally envisioned the business as a food truck. When the city loosened the laws regarding street food, they started working to make that idea a reality. The planning began six months ago and during the winter the partners found a used FedEx truck in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

“No heat, coldest day of the winter of course,” laughs Kyle.

The Anchor restaurant has a fairly small menu, and the food truck will be even more focused. It will offer fish and chips, pasties and chips, battered sausages and sides. All prices will be the same as in the restaurant. Kyle said the truck will likely be downtown for lunch one day a week but will frequently set up shop at destinations like the Fulton taproom.

Like The Anchor’s truck, the Stanley’s truck will be frequently found at fairs, taprooms and other special events. The Stanley’s truck has a unique feature that could make it one of the more in-demand trucks for events: an off-sale liquor license. While the Stanley’s truck can’t serve beer to the downtown lunch crowd, it will be able to do so at private functions. It celebrates that fact with the giant decal of Grain Belt Nordeast cans on it rear door.

“Grain Belt Nordeast is the number one seller at our restaurant,” said Luke Derheim of Stanley’s. “The liquor and beer portion is what we’re really going to emphasize.”

The operators of both The Anchor and Stanley’s believe that their new trucks will be a great way to bring a bit of Northeast to downtown. “A lot of people wouldn’t necessarily come into Northeast from downtown or south,” said Kyle. “So I think it’s great to get our names out there and have people try our food.” Derheim agrees. I don’t think Northeast is really represented downtown,” he said. “It’s a really vibrant, growing community. I think downtown will be pleasantly surprised.”